favorite recipes from a Northwest kitchen

Category Archives: Cakes

I’m not going to disappoint anyone by telling you that banana bread is really cake, right? And this banana “bread” is no exception. It has a couple of healthful flourishes, yes–whole wheat flour replaces some of the white flour, and olive oil and yogurt stand in for butter–but it remains a sweet, dense, chocolatey cake.

And to be honest, I like whole grains in sweet baked goods at least as much for their hearty flavor as for any health benefit they confer (I mean, we’re still talking about cake here). These whole wheat chocolate chip cookies, this rye flour zucchini bread (also a cake, of course)—the whole grains add a layer of flavor and texture that leave more refined baked goods tasting rather insipid in comparison.Continue reading →

The ways of the fruit trees are mysterious to me. One year it’s a bumper crop of plums, this year just enough for one indulgent afternoon. The apple trees are staggering under the weight of their fruit, but we only got one apricot. And the pear tree, espaliered out of the way on our small city lot, produced its customary dozen pears. Which yielded, after a little bit of cleanup and a lot of simmering down, one and a half cups of chunky pear sauce.

We made the most of it with these muffins.

Let me just admit up front that they’re more cake than breakfast, unless you can see your way to combining the two–in which case, I assure you, you won’t be alone. The crumb is tender, the tops are crisp with sugar, and the muffins are fragrant with the heady scents of cardamom and vanilla. Continue reading →

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It took me all summer to get around to making zucchini bread. I don’t have a go-to recipe, and I wasn’t feeling inspired. I didn’t want spices. I didn’t want nuts. I didn’t want chocolate.

I wanted this, although I didn’t know it yet. Butter, infused with basil and mint, so flavorful and delicious that I almost canned the baking idea in favor of just tossing that butter with shredded zucchini. (I’ll be doing that too, you can be sure.) The subtle tang of rye. A little sugar, but not so much that you couldn’t still slather a slice in raspberry jam. And we have. Oh, we have.Continue reading →

As promised, we are using up leftover lentils today. No leftover lentils? Go start a pot of the little French ones now. Cover a cup of them with water, toss in a bay leaf, they’ll be ready before your remaining ingredients are chopped. Which brings us to the next point: this is a more time-consuming recipe than most that I post on this site. You may not want to start cooking these at 6 p.m. on a weekday–but then again, you might. Who am I to insist that you eat before 7?

If you’re looking for a “center of the plate” vegetarian main course, look no further. One or two of these golden cakes, anointed with a dollop of herby yogurt sauce, makes an elegant entree. At the same time, nobody could blame you for popping one of these into a hamburger bun and piling it with crunchy lettuce and tomatoes. The perfect vegetarian burger is an elusive thing, but these fit the bill: flavorful, moist, and sturdy enough to pick up in your hand.

This recipe is adapted from the blog Coconut and Quinoa, so all the credit goes to Amy for the little touches that make this recipe work: mashed chickpeas and oat flour to bind the patties without egg, a sauteed grated zucchini for moisture, and piles of herbs, capers, and a spash of balsamic vinegar to brighten and enhance the flavor of the earthy lentils.

Remember when my backyard rhubarb was barely poking its head up through the ground? I was happy to see the first signs of spring, sure, and new life unfurling is always inspiring, yada yada, but really? I was excited because I was already thinking about this cake.

It’s sweet and light, with barely-tart shards of rhubarb nestled in every bite. It’s topped with a crystallized ginger crumb that gives it a bit of a coffee cake appearance, which lets you get away with serving it for breakfast. (I’ve never understood why topping a sugary cake with MORE sugar makes it into breakfast fare, but I’m not complaining.) It’s a family favorite.

We’ve had her in our lives for a whole year. And what a year the first year of life is! A baby grows from a shapeless, snuggly bundle of tiny fingers, big eyes, and warmth into a little person who can play peekaboo and demand bananas. It’s been a good year.

A birthday, at our house, calls for a cake. I know there are birthday-pie people and people who think one-year-olds shouldn’t eat sugar (they probably shouldn’t), and we aren’t even really cake people so much but…. Birthday. So cake. I have made this same cake for all three of my little ones’ first birthdays. Here it is.

You can think of this particular cake in two ways. If you want to feel virtuous, you can describe it as a tender, butter-free whole wheat cake, glazed with a maple-sweetened cream cheese frosting, chock full of carrots and tinted pink with beet. If you want to feel honest, you can describe it as a total sugarbomb of a cake, well-suited to any celebratory occasion.

I think it’s getting to be a dated notion that a big chunk of meat is the most essential component of any meal. But if you’re trying to eat vegetarian meals more often, sometimes it might feel like the “centerpiece” of the meal is missing. I sometimes struggle with this although I’ve been mostly vegetarian for many years, and I always marvel at how effortlessly a meal comes together when I’m serving a piece of fish. Of course it’s often fine not to have one food be the main attraction, but sometimes it’s nice to have a focal point of a vegetarian meal.

These quinoa cakes fit the bill nicely. They’re high in protein, low in effort (especially if you have some leftover plain or seasoned cooked quinoa), and their tidy presentation looks great on a plate. They could easily be served with a veggie side and/or salad for lunch or dinner. I made them for breakfast with salsa and sliced avocado, although they would also have been great topped with a fried egg. (Isn’t everything?) They’re versatile, I’m telling you. And tasty.

As usual, this is more of a template than a recipe. You can find a recipe, the one that this dish is based on, in Heidi Swanson’s Super Natural Every Day cookbook. But I say wing it. You could stuff these with veggies, make them gooey cheesy, or spice them up with hot pepper. The essentials here are the quinoa, some eggs and breadcrumbs to hold it all together, alliums and herbs for flavoring, and some cheese (or salt!) for salt.Continue reading Quinoa Cakes with Cheese, Garlic, and Herbs (click for recipe)

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Thanks for joining us! Pull up a chair, or balance your computer on the edge of the counter and pull out your pots and pans. Here you'll find recipes for mostly wholesome, mostly vegetarian, always delicious real food. If you like what you see, you can sign up below to receive a daily recipe from emmycooks.com via Facebook, RSS, Twitter, or email.